Diverse Neighbors

Neighbors are divided in supporting 2024 Presidential candidates including in this battleground state of North Carolina. The cover photo shows adjacent neighbor’s homes displaying signs for opposing parties in the affluent area across from Green Level High School.

Both Democratic and Republican candidates are calling this the most consequential election of our lifetimes and using civil-unrest rhetoric: one side says we need to ‘fight to win’ and another threatening to use the military against political rivals within the U.S. I hope and pray we can all reside in peace and harmony during and after this election!

This is the first year that I’ve taken an active role in political campaigns although I’ve posted a few earlier blogs shown below discussing the contrast between evolving parties and elected officials.

Canvassing for the Harris-Walz campaign, I’ve knocked on about 130 doors so far focusing on getting out the Democratic vote by making sure people know when and where to cast their ballot and recording responses on the phone app MiniVan.

When people are home and answer their door, which averages about half the time, I identify myself and ask if they have voted or have a plan to vote. Then I try to determine which candidates they support. I’ve heard the full spectrum of views from strongly supporting, strongly opposed, refusing to disclose, as well as one person intentionally not voting. I’m relieved to learn that most people encourage my efforts and over a dozen times I’ve gotten the opportunity to engage in informative, sometimes passionate, conversations lasting 15 minutes or more.

I’ve spoken with a few undecided voters who asked my opinion for which candidate and party would be better for “kitchen-table economics.” I empathize that it’s difficult getting unbiased news and that we need to make decisions based on our personal, moral and ethical views. We’re all concerned with the rise in food and housing prices during the pandemic. I like to mention how the U.S. economy is getting much better with inflation and interest rates coming down. But consumer prices are still too high. One candidate supports billionaires like Elon Musk to provide tax cuts or petrochemical companies wanting cuts in environmental regulations. I mention the contrast with the Biden administration, Federal Reserve, and Harris proposals as cited in the non-partisian Economist magazine (based in London) with articles including from October 17, 2024 titled: “The envy of the world, America’s economy is bigger and better than ever. Will politics bring it back to earth?”

One retired person I spoke with favored Mr. Trump because he wants to cut taxes. I said it might sound good on the surface but the last time he cut taxes in 2017 it favored the wealthiest people and international corporations, it significantly added to the deficit, and increased inflation. According to the Center for American Progress:

“The Center for American Progress is an independent, nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. An important body of evidence shows that the corporate tax changes in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act failed to produce promised investment or wage increases for the vast majority of U.S. workers. The law did, however, significantly reduce corporate tax collections, diverting resources from public investment to the pockets of wealthy shareholders, executives, and high-paid workers.”

If you dig deeper when Mr. Trump says he wants to cut taxes for overtime pay, social security, or medicare that means getting rid of those benefits or entitlements. The people who are currently working are paying the retiree recipients. October 21st news states Mr. Trump’s plan would eliminate Social Security by 2031 (U.S. News and World Report)! I also remind voters that House Republicans tried unsuccessfully 50 times when Trump was president to replace the Affordable Care Act which is much more popular than Obamacare (which are the same programs).

I’ve shared my personal and professional experiences after retiring as a federal government civil servant in 2019 and since began being able to speak out about politics.

Here are some other related blogs that show the contrast between the two parties:

1/21/2021 Diverse Unity

7/6/2020 Environmental Legacy of the 41st President (George H.W. Bush)

6/12/2020 Vote and Yell If You Can For America To Survive

7/21/2019 Carter Denounces Overconsumption

UPDATE: November 7, 2024

Knocking on about 400 doors and speaking with approximately 100 people in four upper middle class neighborhoods over the past few weeks revealed insights as to the election results for many of the candidates. The list on MiniVan provided by the Democratic Party provided names and addresses of people registered as Democrats with the goal of getting out the vote. We could tell voting status and did not need to ask people if they already voted during the early voting period.

Many voters I spoke with said they planned to vote for Democrats while surprisingly many were unhappy with the Biden-Harris administration and planned to vote for Trump-Vance. Some were not happy that Kamala Harris got the nomination for President after the primary election occurred which nominated Joe Biden without much contest except from Representative Dean Phillips from Minnesota who tried to warn people at that time. I felt that Harris was the likely successor being on the same ticket and there was not time to hold another primary election which would have fractured the party. It’s amazing the broad support across political ideologies that Harris quickly assembled and how many former Trump Administration officials spoke out against him.

Most voters that I spoke with were more concerned about cost of living rising over the past four years and showed frustration that more was not done by the government to help people. Many voters said the Republicans speaking out against Mr. Trump was because he fired them; perhaps his Apprentice show meme “Your fired” stuck with people. I attempted to counter these arguments with my own personal experiences.

When I asked their choice for North Carolina Governor, I did not hear anyone endorse Republican Lt. Governor Robinson but they did support Democrat Josh Stein, the former attorney general, who won election. Also the superintendent of public schools went to Democrat Mo Green who defeated a MAGA supporting Republican. So it was not a complete sweep for Republicans in North Carolina where Trump-Vance won by 51%.

I personally would have been willing to ring anyone’s doorbell that did not have an opposing candidate’s sign displayed. I’ve heard news commentators mention that we all need to engage and listen to differing viewpoints to have healthy conversations but both sides are living in a bubble. This is one reason that most Democrats lost elections with an unpopular, isolated incumbent President who many people feel wasn’t listening all the way down to the lowest levels of the campaign such as myself volunteering to canvas and only talking to those registered as Democrats but many of whom rebelled against the party.

May we hold true to our ideals and values, preserve our first Amendment and other freedoms, improve two-way conversations and courageously speak out against negative forces that try to separate our humanity and hard-fought protections such as for health, safety and the environment!

Efficient Nuke Licensing

In July 2024, President Biden signed the Fire Grants and Safety Act into law. According to DOE, the law is “chalking up a BIG win for our nuclear power industry. Included in the bill is bipartisan legislation known as the ADVANCE Act that will help us build new reactors at a clip that we haven’t seen since the 1970s.”

The ADVANCE Act is short for: ‘‘Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024.”

DOE states, “any of the advanced reactors under development use different coolants than what is currently used in our commercial light-water reactors—making the regulatory process more of a challenge. The ADVANCE Act directs the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to reduce certain licensing application fees and authorizes increased staffing for NRC reviews to expedite the process.”

NRC expediting environmental reviews is discussed in Section 506 of Title V.

TITLE V—IMPROVING COMMISSION EFFICIENCY

Sec. 501. Mission alignment. NRC must update mission statement to include “efficient”
Sec. 502. Strengthening the NRC workforce.
Sec. 503. Commission corporate support funding.
Sec. 504. Performance metrics and milestones.
Sec. 505. Nuclear licensing efficiency.
Sec. 506. Modernization of nuclear reactor environmental reviews.

According to Section 506, NRC must submit a report to Congress within 180 days (due January 2025) with planned efforts to “facilitate efficient, timely, and predictable environmental reviews of nuclear reactor applications for a license…through expanded use of categorical exclusions, environmental assessments, and generic environmental impact statements.”

These new mandates are based on changes made to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in section 321 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act in 2023 as discussed in this blog from the American Action Forum. I previously wrote a blog about the history of NEPA and my submitting public comments to NRC.

According to the ADVANCE Act, NRC must report to Congress and consider:

A)      Using NEPA documents prepared by other Federal agencies

B)      Using previous NEPA documents prepared by NRC

C)      Using mitigated findings of no significant impact to reduce proposed impacts

D)      Relying on other Federal, State, and local government evaluations

E)      Coordinating development of NEPA documents with other Federal agencies

F)      Streamlining consultations with other Federal, State, and local agencies

G)     Streamlining analyses of alternatives including sites and power alternatives

H)     Establishing new categorical exclusions

I)       Amending 10 CFR Section 51.20(b) to determine if an EA can replace an EIS

J)      Authorizing use of applicant’s EIS as the NRCs draft EIS

K)     Adopting online and digital technologies to allow applicant and agency coordination

L)     Making other revisions to 10 CFR 51 that may be needed

Yesterday, I attended a virtual public meeting with NRC staff to take comments on the ADVANCE Act directive to be included in the report to Congress. About 60 people attended including 40 members of the public and 20 NRC staff. Some attendees strongly oppose nuclear energy while others represent the industry or academia which made for diverse and lively comments.

About 20 years ago, I worked for NRC conducting environmental reviews for relicensing operating nuclear power plants. Many of us felt the NEPA schedule of about 18 months was very aggressive and there was more than one Christmas-New Year’s holiday “break” we had to work to get the EIS completed on time! Here’s the basic process: the applicant submits an application then NRC issues the notice of intent (NOI) that gets published in the federal register (FRN) which starts the clock on the application process. NRC staff reviews the industry environmental report and starts the scoping process to conduct the NEPA study, site tours and audits, permit reviews, discussions with agencies/tribes and obtain public comments. This provides input into the draft EIS which involves obtaining and addressing public comments to prepare the final EIS. The NEPA review occurs parallel to the safety evaluation report and the total process to grant a license takes about 2 years.

I commented that for the above item F, NRC must also consult with Native American tribes which are sovereign nations as they are directly affected by uranium mining, mill sites, transportation routes, and more impacts that must be considered in NEPA analyses. I know NRC staff are well aware and are very involved in tribal consultations and the Congressional text must be updated. I could not identify anyone on the public meeting representing Native American tribes and many of the public attendees complained about lack of notification for the meeting. I randomly learned about the meeting by looking at new documents entered into ADAMS. I suggest NRC make more of an effort to engage the general public through social media announcements.

As I reported about 10 months ago, I worked preparing environmental reports to build small modular reactors (SMR) in Idaho. We were very close to submitting the application before the utility shut the project down so the NRC officially did not start the NEPA process. However, NRC became very involved in “pre-application” meetings and reviews of draft documents so there was close coordination between industry and the regulators to make the process very efficient.

Regarding the ADVANCE Act mandate of considerations, NRC will need to determine and justify if other NEPA documents previously prepared by NRC or other Federal, State, or local agencies are relevant, reliable, and adequate to meet all requirements. While NRC consults with Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service and Department of Commerce NOAA, I recommend NRC obtain reviews from the U.S. Geological Survey which is often closely involved in local and tribal resource issues. For example, see the DOE project involving USGS on tribal land related to impacts from uranium mill sites which I coauthored.

I advocate that NEPA documents need to consider alternative siting and sources of power. How did the applicant objectively consider various locations for the project and arrive at the proposed site? For the Idaho SMR project, the Shoshone-Bannock tribe wanted to know the same thing and wondered how the site construction might affect their reservation’s view of the mountains or noise during construction as well many other disruptive concerns.

I believe one of the failures of the Idaho SMR project, beyond the proposed rapid inflationary construction cost increases to the project, was the lack of public outreach to engage ratepayers such as in Salt Lake City to counteract the misinformation regarding baseload and alternative energy sources needed for grid stability. As coal plants get retired or replaced with natural gas plants, the only other source of baseload power (where the electricity flows 24/7) is with nuclear power. While wind and solar power alternatives are increasingly popular, without very expensive battery storage — grid stability will be impossible. So the public, especially the anti-nuclear activists need to face the energy and climate change realities. Therefore, I recommend NRC keep the requirement for industry to provide alternative siting and need for power sources in the environmental report which NRC reviews and incorporates in the EIS. I also do not advocate that first of a kind power plants receive an exemption from considering alternatives.

Similarly, for category J, I do not advocate for NRC adopting the industry environmental report as the draft EIS. That will skip the scoping process involving the pubic. For the Idaho SMR project, we almost completed the environmental report and there was no public involvement. How can NRC plagiarize verbatim industry reports then claim it meets their nuclear ASME quality assurance practices (NQA-1)? When I worked for NRC and learned that our consultant took information directly from the industry report without referencing the source of information this became a serious breach of trust. How will the general public perceive any government report written by industry proponents?

With the U.S. not creating a nuclear waste repository and having to pay industry to store nuclear waste, it is not reasonable for NRC to expect industry will resolve these issues in the environmental report as would be needed if category J were adopted.

I suggest NRC prepare a nationwide programmatic or generic EIS that can be tiered to site specific EIS documents. I do not agree that EAs can be substituted for EIS documents (category I) as nuclear power plants are major federal actions and public involvement with meetings is necessary and might be excluded in the EA process.

Plans to conduct another NRC public meeting on the ADVANCE Act is planned for October 16. This blog will serve as my official public comments submitted to Mr. Lance Rakovan: lance.rakovan@nrc.gov.

Update October 16, 2024

Big news today- Amazon Web Services announced plans to partner with a company to build nuclear energy sites. Here’s a report from AP discussing Amazon and Google’s recent announcements.

Today, I attended another NRC meeting on the ADVANCE Act - this time focusing on the big picture as the first public meeting involving the entire organization. Here are my comments that I posted online:

“I attended public meetings today and on September 25th, 2024. So far at both meetings, the NRC requested public "scoping" comments on the ADVANCE Act but has not provided proposed decisions that must soon be provided to Congress. I submitted comments on Section 506 to modernize nuclear reactor environmental reviews on September 26. The report to Congress on Section 506 is due in early January 2025. Will there be an opportunity to review and provide comments to this draft report to Congress or will it be considered a final report? How can the public provide comments in the process to evaluate NRC recommendations?

At the meeting today, the NMSS Director responded to a question that the ADVANCE Act is being considered beyond the Congressional direction for "advanced nuclear reactors" and being considered for all parts of the agency. This increase in scope warrants an increase in public awareness to all programs nationwide and internationally with participation including from IAEA, other federal agencies, state and local governments and sovereign Native American tribal governments. For example, questions were asked at today's meeting about nuclear waste storage and disposal but no one from the Department of Energy responded. However, the Advance Act (Section 506 items D-F) directs NRC to coordinate with other agencies during the NEPA process. Before changes are made to the process, more public meetings are needed to involve these other groups with public engagement to understand what the NRC recommends.

I recommend NRC consider providing the draft report on Section 506 to Congress and offer a public comment period to review and incorporate comments as is typically done in the EIS process: scoping, draft EIS, final EIS. This would enable NRC to meet its obligation for submitting a report on time and for including additional public input. Support for carbon-free nuclear power is increasing and this is a timely opportunity to increase public pressure on Congress for finding a permanent geologic repository for high-level radioactive waste.

The statement that taxpayers will be subsiding about half of the increased mandates resulting from the Act needs to be detailed. What aspects of the pre-application and application process will be paid by the industry or by taxpayers? The public are not generally involved in pre-application meetings so using taxpayer dollars would be inappropriate.

While the current process of 25 tasks presented today is efficient for NRC to accomplish requirements on many different timelines over the next few years, a reasonable person will not be able to put the pieces together. Therefore, I recommend one overarching mission document is needed in responding to the ADVANCE Act.

Another question asked was how will these changes might affect Reg Guides and other documents. No answer was provided. The industry and public need clarity for what will be affected by regulatory changes and the timelines. For example, Reg. Guide 4.2 to prepare environmental reports will need to be updated for changes to the Act Section 506 and 10 CFR Part 51.

With the 50th anniversary of NRC and preparing for the RIC in March 2025, I suggest the EDO recommend to the Commission:

1) that the ADVANCE Act is vital for the nation's civilian nuclear program and necessitates demonstration as an independent regulatory, similar to the Federal Reserve

2) one holistic agency-wide document describing all functions of NRC will be prepared focusing on proposed changes

3) the NRC organize a panel for the RIC involving a wide number of agency experts to describe the changes being made from the Advance Act.”

UPDATE January 16, 2026

The NRC completed the report to Congress directed by Section 506 of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024 (ADVANCE Act). Here are links to the letter and report. Based on my reading, the report proposes potential changes to the way NRC conducts environmental reviews for new power plants with the overall theme for industry to have a much larger role in the NEPA process. For example, utility consultants may take the lead in several areas including: 1) threatened and endangered species biological reviews and preparing assessments, 2) interactions with tribal governments, and 3) preparing environmental assessments (EA) as the preferred option over full environmental impact statements (EIS). Previously, NRC took the lead in all these areas including having industry submit the environmental report that fed into the expanded EIS. In addition, issues common to all future nuclear plants could be resolved in the Generic EIS for New Reactors in the same way NRC regulates other fuel cycle entities.

The use of “incorporation by reference” will expand where the applicant cites previous public information so the reader must track down information. The NRC focus will be on new and significant information as well as only consider alternative sources of energy as part of the no action alternative as related only to nuclear options. Therefore, NEPA documents will no longer consider various sources of non-nuclear energy which for adoption of future nuclear power and generating additional nuclear waste needs to become part of the national and international conversation. The report is very brief with summary tables provided in Enclosure 1. NRC acknowledged my previously submitting public comments along with eight other commenters as shown in Enclosure 2.

When I worked for NRC preparing EIS documents to relicense nuclear power plants, we needed several staff and about 15 experts from national laboratories to conduct environmental reviews. There are extensive data requirements such as for air and water that must begin several years before the application stage, so there will be much more burden on industry consultants to fully plan and execute the expanding requirements.

Please let me know if you are interested in discussing how these changes could impact your business when interacting with the NRC.

Updated June 27, 2025

I heard from a friend who worked with me at the NRC and he share this update:

“From the retiree luncheon gathering, I learned the NRC has a hiring freeze.  A number of employees have retired or taken the buy out and cannot be replaced.

The ADVANCE Act passed by the previous administration, changed NRC's mission.  

It is now, "The NRC protects public health and safety and advances the nation’s common defense and security by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation for the benefit of society and the environment".

The major changes are the addition of the words "enabling" and "efficiency". 

Chairman David Wright has stated that "The future of nuclear energy and radioactive materials in this country is at a crossroads, and the NRC should position itself to be a part of the solution.  Congress has directed the NRC to be an enabler to nuclear technologies while staying true to the core principles laid out in the Atomic Energy Act." 

In the ADVANCE Act; "efficiency" refers to timeliness and cost.”

In Woodbury Pond

In Woodbury Pond

by Bill and A.J. Dam

In the Piedmont’s former pristine white pine forest transformed to become the newly constructed housing development of New Hill, North Carolina, an area of about five-square miles and 1,000 McMansions, only one old pond remains. Located in the Woodbury neighborhood across from where we live in Jordan Manors, the small pond is cramped and crowded behind the backyards of a dozen homes. Living in the Woodbury Pond are a few elusive large-mouth bass.

Attaching the seven foot fishing rod to the electric bike makes for quick transport to get the hook in the water. After dozens of trips and hundreds of attempts using different bait and fishing from different spots on the shore, no luck occurred in snagging the prized fish. Then on Friday the 13th of September, on his last attempt after trying for two hours and 30 minutes past sunset in the twilight, knowing the bass must be hiding beneath fallen branches and rigged with a swim bait artificial fish, a huge large-mouth bass jumped onto the lure as soon as it hit the water. The bass tried to swim away dragging the line that spun off the reel to get away but with great effort A.J. reeled in the fish feeling the rod bending close to the breaking point. The bass measured about two feet long and A.J. immediately made a video call to his parents to share the news.

Carefully removing the hook from the large mouth, hoping the bass can live longer, he carefully set the fish free into the old pond and slowly rode the e-bike home feeling elated to share his achievement of the one that didn’t get away.

8th Grade Science Sub

Yesterday, I taught four science classes to approximately 100 eighth grade students at East Cary Magnet Middle School. The mission of the school is to be a Center for Global Studies and World Languages and motto is Unity Through Diversity. As school year just began last week and the teacher needed to attend a training, the students are getting an introduction (or reminders) on topics including laboratory safety, definitions including density and buoyancy, and the scientific method.

I didn’t expect the homeroom and “Global Scholar time” students to continue staying for the core 1 science class lasting a total of two hours! The students didn’t have much independent homework or class work to do so we had lots of time to share stories and compare interests. Many students shared they like sports, dancing, music and computer games. Given the mission of the school, I asked what languages they speak and some of the responses included: English, Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, and Tagalog. Luckily for me, all the students are fluent in English. I said they are also learning to speak Science and to consider it like a foreign language that they need to learn the lingo and start with the definitions.

To continue reading this blog, please see the full post on Substack and consider subscribing to my EcoEd channel.

Debby Deluge

Tropical storm Debby which hit Florida as a category 1 hurricane is dropping record rainfall across the southeastern U.S. As the eye of the storm circulated around us yesterday afternoon on 8/8/24, the rain stopped briefly allowing time for my son and me to take a bike ride for this photo op showing submerged Richardson Road at Reedy Branch Creek in the Apex Friendship area of North Carolina. We received four inches of rainfall in one day with most of the rain falling in the morning! This is the same road we previously helped to pick up trash. Much of the trash if it get into the stream would be very dangerous to wildlife. With the road block detour diverting traffic around the flooded road, we noticed many homes and farms cut off and wondered how they would be able to come and go.

So for all the people who enjoy or dislike going outdoors, driving cars, fishing, and generally surviving on this planet, can we all agree to do more to reduce trashing the roads, wasting gasoline, emitting carbon, and respect all lives found in nature?

Cicada cuisine

This morning I took a hike around Harris Park to see if I could see birds eating cicadas. The birds were too high in the trees yet I felt luck that one cicada landed close to me so I could get this photo. According to Vox, two broods emerging together has not happened since Thomas Jefferson was President! The birds have lost interest in our seed feeder with the proliferation of these insects — apparently the males make loud noises to attract females. As a result of the cicada feast, birds will produce more offspring. My neighbor who’s an orchestra leader said the cicadas sound like a rolling high pitched snare drum. Hopefully the noise that’s annoying to us will benefit the ecosystem! Here’s a video of my walk in the woods listening to the cicadas and discovering a wildlife creature.

#?

This President’s Day weekend, the annual Great Backyard Bird Count is taking place. People are identifying birds from around the world for fun, scientific research and a chance to win a pair of Zeiss binoculars. Cornell Labs and other sponsors run the event offering free phone apps that can help us to identify birds by pictures or sound calls. I first tried the Merlin Bird ID app and quickly selected birds I saw which then took me to the eBird website to provide more details. Shown in the photo from my backyard seed feeder is a male Northern Cardinal and a chipping sparrow (males and females look the same) based on the field guide book: Birds of the Carolinas by Stan Tekiela.

This is the third bird feeder we’ve tried to use in the past week - the first one provided a mix of sunflower seed to birds and squirrels, which reminded us of Mark Rober’s videos building squirrel mazes. Then we tried an oriole feeder using sliced oranges and jelly. We didn’t observe orioles yet as they apparently migrate in early April but we did get some small Eastern Bluebirds briefly check out the goodies. The seed feeder shown in the picture is called a “Squirrel-X1” made by Classic Brands LLC which is available at many big box retailers.

Plant List

Here’s the list of trees and shrubs we planted at our Apex, North Carolina home in January 2024:

Trees: Trident Maple, Tulip Poplar, Tuscarora (red) Crape Myrtle, Natchez (white) Crape Myrtle, Little Gem Magnolia, Chindo Viburnum.

Shrubs: Loropetalum-Purple Daydream, Weeping Styrax, Limelight Hydrangea, Frosty Abelia, Canna, Hardy Hibiscus, Nepeta, Tea Olive, Butterfly Bush, Curly Leaf Ligustrum, Cinnamon Girl Distylim, Cassian Grass, Serendipity Magnolia.

We’ve reported planting 12 trees and 44 bushes to Amma’s Greenfriends group as part of the Trillion Tree Campaign:

The GreenFriends North America "Embracing the Trees" initiative (GFNA ETT) aims to provide opportunities for practicing this interdependence and cooperation in doing our part to re-green Mother Earth, and to honor Amma's pledge to join the Trillion Tree Campaign which was launched by the UN in March of 2018.

Early To Bed, Early to Rise...

When Ben Franklin wrote his famous quote:

Early to Bed, Early to Rise, makes a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy, and wise, did he have a timeframe for sleeping in mind?

I went to bed relatively early last night at 10 pm but Poppy came to bed later around 11:30 pm although earlier than her usual pattern of retiring after midnight. Then we woke up around 3 am this morning! I’m semi-retired so working much less these days; hence in terms of lower stress, maybe I’m a bit healthier while she’s working extensively, often 15 hours a day, so she’s now becoming wealthier, and together we are becoming wiser. It’s wonderful to be married to a happy, sometimes delirious, complementary companion who is more beautiful, intelligent, and personable than I could ever imagine even in my dreams.

Surprisingly awake in the ‘wee hours’ we briefly discussed our landscaping project, fulfilling plans we’ve developed over the past couple of years, to plant trees and bushes tomorrow. We started laughing about the company’s demanding older brother owner who shows up occasionally barking orders to the rest of the chill crew — especially to the kinder younger brother in charge of the site work. He’s very responsive to our questions hoping to keep us very happy with their constructing a terrace wall and patio pavers as well as preparing to plant new vegetation. We get the feeling they’ve been burnt before by unhappy homeowners — so far we’re very happy with their work. A tree we wanted was not available at the nursery leaving a potential gap so Poppy came up with the brilliant idea to balance the color scheme with a second white crape myrtle instead of waiting until fall season to get the originally-intended colorful tree. She also laughed at how I confused her and the younger brother about trying to order trees using numbers as my diagram kept changing.

Speaking of dreams, just before she woke to go bathroom, in my sleep I saw a group of familiar people, perhaps former demanding colleagues from past jobs, whom I wanted to impress about my famous family ancestor who continues to greatly influence me and hopefully many others by reading related Conserve & Prosper blogs to them. The excitement of public speaking got my heart pumping fast as I awoke, or maybe it wasn’t so much the dream as it was the post-dinner snacks of blueberries, chocolates, and cereal that got the ol’ ticker accelerated. So Poppy returned to her slumbers while I came to write this blog as my sleep time typically can accommodate afternoon naps.

Here are some of the blogs I would like to share with anyone who’ll listen about by maternal second cousin whom we share a common ancestor. Special thanks to my next door neighbor cousin who discovered this special connection and also provided HOA approval for our landscaping efforts!

Election Day 2020

GOVEROSITY! Say What?

Happy Birthday Ben Frankin

Dinotext

This past Thursday I serendipitously worked as a substitute teacher at Apex Friendship High School. This winter waking up early on cold mornings became more difficult so normally I’ve been lazily sleeping past 7 am. Perhaps my dog was barking Thursday morning so I woke up around 5 am and spent the first hour chanting 1108 names of the Divine Mother. Then I felt a strong urge to check the Wake County Public School System jobs listing. There’s a critical need for substitute teachers and I noticed about 20 job openings for that day on just the narrow list of schools in my area. A day of “subbing” pays between $120 to $135 depending on qualifications.

To continue reading this blog, please see Substack and consider subscribing to my EcoEd channel.

POWERFUL!

Two books published in 2021 on related topics - by Katharine Hayhoe and Bill Gates - document sources of human-released carbon overheating our fragile earth and what they are doing and recommending to mitigate further catastrophes. Both books offer clear insights to understand the threat, communicate with other people possessing diverse opinions, and urgently act in the most effective and efficient way to achieve critical solutions. However, there is a major difference I found between the books that needs to be corrected!

In my previous blog, I discuss the cancellation of the Carbon Free Power Project in Idaho to build a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) and losing my consulting job one month ago. Subsequently, I picked up these and other books at the library to see what authors said about all the sources of energy we need to solve our climate crisis.

Dr. Hayhoe, a Texas Tech climate professor, briefly mentions new developments in SMR projects in Idaho, the one that just got canceled, and others including by Bill Gates, founding investor of TerraPower, in partnership with GE Hitachi as well as advances in other countries. On page 198 of Saving US, the author states that solar photovoltaics covering an area of about 100 square miles in West Texas could provide all the power needed to supply the United States using present available technology.

Mr. Gates devotes an entire chapter titled “Five Questions to Ask in Every Climate Conversation” including how much power and space is needed? The U.S. consumes about 1,000 gigawatts and a mid-sized city needs about 1 gigawatt. He shows how much power can be generated from various energy sources like nuclear (500 - 1000 watts per square meter), solar (5 -20 w/m2), and wind (1 - 2 w/m2). So a solar farm needs between 50 to 100 times more land to generate power than a nuclear plant. As solar only provides intermittent power during the day and seasonal changes cuts light energy in half from summer to winter, expensive storage batteries must be factored into any comparison with baseload power plants.

Ultimately, we need all the clean energy power sources that we can build as we shut down coal plants by balancing the supply and demand of electricity with combinations of geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, solar, waves and wind.

SayoMaRa CFPP

In a major setback personally and for the future of all life on earth, this week I said goodbye to my environmental Fluor Corporation consulting job, as did many others receive “Reduction-In-Force” (RIF) notices, after the NuScale small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) project in Idaho got cancelled. For the past 13-months, I joined several consultants preparing permitting documents for review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). We completed numerous pre-application activities including attending meetings around the country, submitting the first Limited Work Authorization for early construction and we were on track for completing the license application and an environmental report to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) this year. The project received significant federal funding and support including being remotely sited along with about 50 other nuclear reactor projects at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

So what was the CFPP and why did we say sayonara or ‘SayoMaRa’ to the proposal? The Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) planned to build six SMRs in a connected series of units that would have produced 77 megawatts (MW) each for a total of 462 MW. One MW can provide power for about 750 homes so the proposed CFPP at a 90% capacity would provide power to about 310,000 homes.

Increasing inflation and other factors caused the project to fail. Anticipated construction costs doubled so utility customers became reluctant to subscribe to the CFPP. With extensive research and working with other experts, I concluded the benefits far outweighed the potential costs comparing all the options available. Unfortunately, to my knowledge this information did not get shared with the public. Ironically, favorability of nuclear power is growing in America: currently at 57%, up from 43% in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center.

Many people think we can solve all our energy needs with renewables like wind, solar, hydroelectric dams, geothermal, or biomass. That’s like driving a car without understanding how and how often to add fuel. According to The Urbanist, a SMR needs only about 0.1 square mile of land mass as compared to hundreds of square miles for equivalent wind or solar farms producing only intermittent energy.

Obviously, there is not enough land space, continuous sunlight or wind, battery storage facilities, dammed rivers, hot rocks, or wood pellets to burn on the earth to meet our ever increasing energy demands. The only baseload power plants are from burning coal, natural gas or radioactive decay from elements like thorium and uranium. SMRs are designed to provide grid stability and work with alternative energy sources to keep the lights on consistently.

This is a global problem and what happened to America’s drive for energy independence? Microsoft founder Bill Gates knows the importance of nuclear power - he’s very involved in energy and climate issues such as creating advanced nuclear TerraPower designs starting with proposing to replace a coal plant in Wyoming.

NRC previously approved the NuScale design, originally developed at Oregon State University, for a larger 12-unit SMR plant which contains numerous advances in passive safety features. NuScale is the only SMR design currently approved by NRC.

Here are some additional new articles:

US News and World Report

NuScale Ends Utah Project, in Blow to US Nuclear Power Ambitions

Wired

“On Wednesday, NuScale and its backers pulled the plug on the multibillion-dollar Idaho Falls plant. They said they no longer believed the first-of-its-kind plant, known as the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) would be able to recruit enough additional customers to buy its power.”

“The Department of Energy, which was due to host the plant at Idaho National Lab, awarded $1.4 billion to the project over 10 years.”

“UAMPS spokesperson Jessica Stewart told WIRED that the utility group would expand its investments in a major wind farm project and pursue other contracts for geothermal, solar, battery, and natural gas projects”

Axios reported, “The Energy Department had provided $232 million for the project since October 2020. An agency spokesperson said the work will be valuable in the future, adding: "While not every project is guaranteed to succeed, DOE remains committed to doing everything we can to deploy these technologies to combat the climate crisis and increase access to clean energy."

Hottest Month Ever!

I took this picture while on vacation walking by a student’s summer camp, with kids cooling off in the park fountain located next to the Hudson River in Manhattan, New York, on July 1st - the start of the warmest month ever recorded globally! Scientific American states this might be the hottest month in over 120,000 years! Not only did we and millions of other people deal with extreme heatwaves, to make matters worse, smoke from over 4,300 wildfires in Canada, drifted into the United States. I wore an N95 mask on many days of our vacation despite the heat.

When we returned home to North Carolina, I took my son camping looking forward to the cooler mountains. While we enjoyed seeing Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy, location of the Andy Griffith TV show, it was too hot to be outdoors in the daytime. So we found some indoor activities including eating lunch at the Loaded Goat (to commemorate the episode where a goat ate too much dynamite). When we got back to the State Park campground in the evening, a large family set up next to us and ran a loud-sounding, gas-powered generator and air conditioner into their tent all night long! In their tent, not an RV!

Like many fortunate people, we depend on air conditioning at home. The hotter it gets, the harder our AC needs to work. The more energy we burn to produce AC that uses hydrofluorocarbons causes more carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. It’s a vicious cycle. With the hottest month on record, many people’s AC’s broke down - including ours. Luckily, we got a repairman to come out the same day to replace the condenser - a device that stores energy to start up the AC. Despite our home being one level and very energy efficient with great insulation, inside the house got up to 90 degrees F before we got the AC fixed and it took several hours for the house to cool down to 70 degrees.

Also this month we took a weekend trip to northern Virginia traveling north on several crowded interstate highways clogged with commercial trucks and passenger cars that were slowed by construction zones. Returning home we came back on US 29, a road I drove many times over 45 years ago when I went to college. My memory of the unimpeded highway clashed with the new realization of numerous traffic lights halting stop-and-go traffic. Urbanization from D.C. to Charlottesville, VA resulted in the highway becoming a local road lined with strip malls. We considered a detour to get back on I-81; luckily, a new bypass around Charlottesville enabled traveling at highway speeds and we enjoyed the return to the countryside of the Blue Ridge mountains as we headed south.

Observing the collective and personal burning of fossil fuels weighs heavy on my mind, hoping for a brighter future where we can all reduce pollution. Coming soon, I hope to share an important project that is addressing many of these environmental-energy issues that, if adopted, will greatly contribute to future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Stay tuned to this space and please post a comment on these topics.

Slow Down

On Memorial Day, in a nearby neighborhood of Apex, North Carolina, a 10-year old boy died when hit by a car. The boy was riding on his scooter by his home and perhaps the driver of the car was going too fast - the cause of the accident is still under investigation. The NHTSA.gov reports that in 2021 speeding killed 12,330 people in the United States.

This morning I was reminded of this accident while walking our dog on the sidewalk and a car came speeding past me. The street in our neighborhood is narrow with parked cars on one side of the road. As the speeding car flew by just a few feet away from me, I guess going at least 40 mph in the 25 mph speed limit, I waved my arm to slow down. The driver slowed and then stopped and backed up to see what happened. I asked, “do you know how fast your were going?” The driver replied no and said he was not paying attention. “You were going at least 40 mph and we have kids on scooters riding around here too.” The man apologized and I felt grateful he seemed receptive to my concerns and did not get angry.

The chart from NTSB shows that pedestrian fatalities increase with speed - just an increase from 20 mph to 30 mph increases deaths by 40% and getting hit by a car going 40 mph you only have a 15% chance of survival! Several years ago a friend of mine lost his wife- a school teacher and mother - when she got hit and run over in a supermarket parking lot — the car only traveled about 5 mph!

Our neighborhood obtained from the Apex Police Department a traffic speed monitor to remind drivers how fast they are traveling. The monitor functioned for about two weeks close to the location of the speeding car and then we recently requested moving it to a parallel street. Another neighbor mentioned the monitor slows most cars down but some of the teenage drivers like to test how fast they can cruise by the digital sign.

Another reason to slow down is the faster you drive the more money you’ll spend. Gas milage efficiency generally decreases rapidly at speeds above 50 mph. According to Fuel Economy.gov, you can assume that for each 5 mph you drive over 50 mph on the highway is like paying an additional $0.25 per gallon of gas. So on the many local highways with 70 mph speed limits, people are typically driving 80 mpg costing an extra $3.00 per gallon of gas.

Conserve your speed to save lives, money, and so much more!

Memorial Day 2023

For the past eight years since starting the Conserve-Prosper website, Memorial Day holds a special place in my heart remembering American military families, including my own family. The blog from 2021 provides a summary of remembrances sharing how my parents and all Americans wisely used resources during the war years which continued to be the custom in our home decades later. We commonly heard our parents say, “Waste not, want not” meaning if we use a commodity or resource carefully and without extravagance, we will never be in need. Conservation programs like rationing supplies of food, fuel, and paper became urgent during the war years. Due to the national war effort at home and abroad, the Allies won the Second World War and America prospered greatly.

Would you agree we can get by with less? Make it a game. See if you can find ways to save money and time by becoming more efficient in using resources. We can all be soldiers in the fight to protect nature from wiping us off the planet!

Cotton Mill Site Renewal

Poppy and I visited the small town of Saxapahaw, North Carolina. We came for a quiet hike on a rainy Sunday morning at the Saxapahaw Island State Park. We walked a mile around the 30 acre park in between rain showers enjoying the spring day - lots of birds and squirrels visible all around. The Haw River flows into the Army Corps of Engineer’s dam reservoir at Jordan Lake. I learned about this beautiful place after attending an Earth Day celebration last year and meeting dedicated volunteers with the Haw River Assembly who’ve been helping to protect the river system for over 40 years! There are many upcoming activities to join the group and in visit this interesting town.

A cotton mill began construction in 1844 and operated for 150 years until 1994 after a tornado damaged the mill. The Jordan family revitalized the mill site and restored the factory into restaurants, stores and residential buildings.

With only about 2,000 current residents living in the town, we were surprised at how many people came out for Sunday brunch. We couldn’t get a table at the Eddy Pub; luckily, we sat at the beautiful copper-covered bar and noticed the huge valves refitted to serve kegs of beer. The barkeep said people come from all over the state to visit Saxapahaw on the weekends. We need to go back for a river tour and visit the history museum. A sign at the park says the town got its name from the Sissapahaw Indians and an explorer in 1701 described the area as the “flower of the Carolinas.” A grist mill to grind cereal was built in 1768 prior to the cotton mill about 75 years later.

This area appears to be rich in history, perhaps a model for sustainability, but I’d be interested to hear from local Native Americans and descendants of slaves, who had to dislocate and labor in the cotton fields, likely will have different viewpoints for us to consider. From an environmental perspective, the current status is a great improvement over the conditions of working in the cotton mill or water pollution impacts on the Haw River. We’ve largely moved those impacts to Asian countries.

Collaborative and Integrative Science by Dedicated Public Servants

A new publication by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) locates where groundwater pollution from a former uranium mill site impacts a stream’s ecosystem on the Wind River Indian Reservation. Eleven coauthors from USGS and two universities collaborated on the study with me when I worked with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management (DOE). My co-authored 2015 DOE investigation was limited to looking at soils and groundwater while USGS-university expertise examined the land, surface water and groundwater, sediments and aquatic biota.

My recent interview in the ProPublica news article discusses similar uranium mill sites where DOE is failing to contain groundwater contamination hoping that ‘dilution is the solution to pollution.’ However, the latest USGS report identifies continued impacts to the river environment at Riverton even though the mill stopped operating in 1963, surface contamination was removed by 1990, and remaining contaminant concentrations are now significantly lower! Current EPA regulations allow DOE site managers to wait and see for 100 years after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval using the “natural flushing” compliance strategy.

Confrontation and not collaboration between agency representatives initially occurred after a rain on snow event in 2010 flooded rivers on both sides of the site which caused increases, and not decreases, in groundwater contamination. Tribal officials wrote letters to the Wyoming Governor, Secretary of Energy, and other elected officials tying to get DOE to explain the surprising results. The Wind River Environmental Quality Commission (WREQC) hired USGS to assess the effectiveness of the existing DOE monitoring network at the Riverton, Wyoming, Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) site which produced this initial USGS publication. WREQC consisted of representatives from the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes representing the community who understandably held deep grudges for multi-generational human rights abuses including the uranium mill contaminating their property. Many of the tribal members and families have suffered from cancer and other illnesses that they believe came from living next to the uranium mill site.

In 2012, I was working for a different USGS office than the authors working with WREQC. I knew the DOE manager on the Riverton project when we worked together on the defunct Yucca Mountain high-level waste repository project. She and her management asked me to review the groundwater monitoring strategy at several UMTRA sites. Soon after I started, DOE held a town-hall meeting in Riverton airing public concerns for contamination impacting the health of the community.

After six months of the USGS detail assignment, I transferred to the better-funded DOE and looked for ways to improve collaboration such as by attending tribal council meetings, involving the tribal hydrogeology consultant in field investigations and communicating with the larger community our proactive investigation by conducting interviews through the news media.

Earth scientists traditionally study college subjects including biology, chemistry, geology, hydrology, and physics taught as separate classes and discrete major disciplines. Due to nature’s complexity, professionals are collaborating and integrating scientific knowledge by merging disciplines and combining research such as geophysics, biogeochemistry, and hydrogeology. This USGS report applies numerous state-of-the-art tools that are improving our understanding of the environment.

It’s common practice driven by regulations to monitor groundwater pollution in wells and randomly grab river samples upstream and downstream of contaminated sites. However, the small volume of groundwater discharging somewhere adjacent to and beneath a river is quickly diluted in the stream so determining the impacts to biological organisms like algae and crayfish is not possible. To get a more accurate understanding of the groundwater-surface water interactions, the USGS scientists and professors used innovative approaches to locate groundwater discharge using several comparable approaches including fiber optic cables that measure warmer groundwater entering the cooler river. The authors also quantified contaminants sorbed onto river sediments and accumulating in biological samples.

Several of the authors previously retired, including the lead author Dave Naftz who dedicated his 36-year career to these types of investigations, yet continued to persevere through the arduous and lengthy peer-review publication process as a volunteer in the USGS emeritus program. Many thanks to all these dedicated public servants for advancing environmental science by producing outstanding reports!

Here are details of Scientific Investigations Report 2022–5089: 

Interaction of a Legacy Groundwater Contaminant Plume with the Little Wind River from 2015 Through 2017, Riverton Processing Site, Wyoming

Abstract

The Riverton Processing site was a uranium mill 4 kilometers southwest of Riverton, Wyoming, that prepared uranium ore for nuclear reactors and weapons from 1958 to 1963. The U.S. Department of Energy completed surface remediation of the uranium tailings in 1989; however, groundwater below and downgradient from the tailings site and nearby Little Wind River was not remediated. Beginning in 2010, a series of floods along the Little Wind River began to mobilize contaminants in the unsaturated zone, resulting in substantial increases of uranium and other contaminants of concern in monitoring wells completed inside the contaminant plume. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy started a series of university and Government agency retrospective and field investigations to understand the processes controlling contaminant increases in the groundwater plume. The goals of the field investigations described in this report were to (1) identify and quantify the contaminant flux and potential associated biological effects from groundwater associated with the legacy plume as it enters a perennial stream reach, and (2) assess chemical exposure and potential effects to biological receptors from the interaction of the contaminant plume and the river.

Field investigations along the Little Wind River were completed by the U.S. Geological Survey during 2015–17 in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Legacy Management to characterize: (1) seepage areas and seepage rates; (2) pore-water and bed sediment chemistry and hyporheic exchange and reactive loss; and (3) exposure pathways and biological receptors. All data collected during the study are contained in two U.S. Geological Survey data releases, available at https://doi.org/10.5066/F7BR8QX4 and https://doi.org/10.5066/P9J9VJBR. A variety of tools and methods were used during the field characterizations. Streambed temperature mapping, electrical resistivity tomography, electromagnetic induction, fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing, tube seepage meters, vertical thermal sensor arrays, and an environmental tracer (radon) were used to identify areas of groundwater seepage and associated seepage rates along specific sections of the study reach of the river. Drive points, minipiezometers, diffusive equilibrium in thin-film/diffusive gradients in thin-film probes, bed-sediment samples, and equal discharge increment sampling methods were used to characterize pore-water chemistry, estimate hyporheic exchange and reactive loss of selected chemical constituents, and quantify contaminant loadings entering the study reach. Sampling and analysis of surface sediments, filamentous algae, periphytic algae, and macroinvertebrates were used to characterize biological exposure pathways, metal uptake, and receptors.

Areas of focused groundwater discharge identified by the fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing surveys corresponded closely with areas of elevated electrical conductivity identified by the electromagnetic induction survey results in the top 5 meters of sediment. During three monitoring periods in 2016, the mean vertical seepage rate measured with tube seepage meters was 0.45 meter per day, ranging from −0.02 to 1.55 meters per day. Five of the 11 locations where vertical thermal profile data were collected along the study reach during August 2017 indicated mean upwelling values ranging from 0.11 to 0.23 meter per day. Radon data collected from the Little Wind River during June, July, and August 2016 indicated a consistent inflow of groundwater to the central part of the study reach, in the area congruous with the center of the previously mapped groundwater plume discharge zone. During August 2017, the greatest attenuation of uranium from reactive loss in pore-water samples was observed at three locations along the study reach, at depths between 6 and 15 centimeters, and similar trends in molybdenum attenuation were also observed. Bed-sediment concentration profiles collected during 2017 also indicated attenuation of uranium and molybdenum from groundwater during hyporheic mixing of surface water with the legacy plume during groundwater upwelling into the river. Streamflow measurements combined with equal discharge increment water sampling along the study reach indicated an increase in dissolved uranium concentrations in the downstream direction during 2016 and 2017. Net uranium load entering the Little Wind River study reach was about 290 and 435 grams per day during 2016 and 2017, respectively. Biological samples indicated that low levels of uranium and molybdenum exposure were confined to the benthos in the Little Wind River within and immediately downstream from the perimeter of the groundwater plume. Concentrations of molybdenum and uranium in filamentous algae were consistently low at all sites in the study reach with no indication of increased exposure of dissolved bioavailable molybdenum or uranium at sites next to or downstream from the groundwater plume.

Comparison of the August 2017 results from electromagnetic induction, tube seepage meters, vertical thermal profiling, and pore-water chemistry surveys were in general agreement in identifying areas with upwelling groundwater conditions along the study reach. However, the electroconductivity values measured with electromagnetic induction in the top 100 centimeters of sediment did not agree with sodium concentrations measured in pore-water samples collected at similar streambed depths. Differences and similarities between multiple methods can result in additional insights into hydrologic and biogeochemical processes that may be occurring along a reach of a river system interacting with shallow groundwater inputs. It may be advantageous to apply a variety of geophysical, geochemical, hydrologic, and biological tools at other Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/10/f19/UMTRCA.pdf) sites during the investigation of legacy contaminant plume interactions with surface-water systems.

Suggested citation: 

Naftz, D.L., Fuller, C.C., Runkel, R.L., Solder, J., Gardner, W.P., Terry, N., Briggs, M.A., Short, T.M., Cain, D.J., Dam, W.L., Byrne, P.A., and Campbell, J.R., 2023, Interaction of a legacy groundwater contaminant plume with the Little Wind River from 2015 through 2017, Riverton Processing site, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2022–5089, 66 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20225089.

Happy Birthday Ben Franklin!

January 17th is Ben Franklin’s official Birthday! Actually, according to the Franklin Institute, he was born on January 6th but later Great Britain switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar and skipped 11 days. He was born in Boston in 1706, only 317 years ago. During a recent visit to Boston, as described in this blog, we noticed numerous memorials to his life even though he moved to Philadelphia when he was just 17 years old. One tarnished-looking memorial tablet, also called a plaque but not to be confused with sticky whitish deposits on teeth, close to the Paul Revere statue and North Church displays:

Benjamin Franklin, 1706 - 1790

Printer, Scientist, Philanthropist, Diplomat and Statesman, A Man of Towering Eminence

As Publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanac, he provided America with a practical philosophy and enriched its common speech with a wealth of proverbs, his humorous, realistic, far-ranging mind, the liberalism of his political and social philosophy, the manifold services he rendered to his fellowmen, made him one of the greatest Americans.

I recall as a boy growing up near George Washington’s home that I loved to read about our Founding Fathers. One time I spent a week at home in bed recovering from an illness reading about Ben Franklin’s life. I loved memorizing some of his favorite expressions including:

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned!

Early to Bed, Early to Rise, Makes a Man Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

Haste Makes Waste.

Honesty is the Best Policy.

These and other expressions became like mantras that I often repeated for fun and inspiration. Here are some more quotes related to the theme of Conserve & Pro$per from the National Geographic Kids series Benjamin Franklin’s Wise Words: How to Work Smart, Play Well, and Make Real Friends, by K.M. Kostyal. Thank you Ben for inventing the first lending library so I could unexpectedly discover, borrow, read, and share interesting books:

Content Makes Poor Men Rich; Discontent Makes Rich Men Poor.

Time is an Herb That Cures All Diseases.

A Long Life May Not Be Good Enough, But a Good Life is Long Enough.

Don’t Throw Stones At Your Neighbours, If Your Own Windows Are Glass.

Tart Words Make No Friends: a Spoonful of Honey Will Catch More Flies Than a Gallon of Vinegar.

Eat to Live, and Not Live to Eat.

A Penny Sav’D is TwoPence Clear.

Notice how some of the phases have changed over time like the generic Man instead of Human or Person and “TwoPence Clear” means “a Penny Saved.” Also notice the contraction ‘Sav’D.’ I found another book at the same public library titled An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin and Noah Webster’s Spelling Revolution by Beth Anderson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book describes how the two teamed up in 1786, when Noah was 28 years old and just four years before Ben passed away, to make American English easier to read and write. He proposed to match how words sounded by throwing away silent letters like c, j, q, w, x, and y and add aw, uh, edh, ing, and eth. He wanted to change DOG to DAG, FEATHER to FEHER, FISH to FIH, and TEETH to TEEH. It’s interesting to think how different a Boston accent is from the Southern dialect so finding one common way that all Americans could agree on posed a great challenge. I recommend reading this book to see how their proposal evolved into Webster’s Dictionary. Another great quote of Ben’s comes from this book which I think I will add to the bottom of my email footer:

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

The more I learn about Ben Franklin the closer I feel to his Spirit. On Election Day 2020, I posted a blog showing Ben Franklin on the $100 bill describing his pivotal role in creating our democracy and wondering how he would react to the election and political divides in our country. Turns out my connection to Ben is not only one of great admiration but also a family connection! I’m just learning in the recent days that we shared a common ancestor. Ben’s great grandfather John Folger came from Norwich, England to Massachusetts in 1638. My mother’s family connects to the Folger lineage making Ben my second cousin! Yep, I can see a family resemblance between Ben Franklin and my Mom, may they both Rest In Peace!

Power Outage Tracker

This week I read an article discussing impacts to the electrical grid during the severe winter weather. PowerOutage.us provides regional information on electric customers without power. The U.S. map provides yellow labels for at least 10,000 customers currently without power in Colorado and Washington states. In addition, close to 60,000 customers are without power in Oregon. The interactive map allows for more information for each state and county.

The MSN news article describes how extreme cold weather in Texas caused excessive demand and under supply of electricity; so on Friday, the U.S. Department of Energy declared an emergency warning allowing the state regulator to boost energy generation from all sources including dirtier fuel oil releasing more pollution! So how much more?

The U.S. Energy Information Agency provides a list of carbon dioxide emissions indicating fuel oil like kerosene and diesel release an average of 162 pounds (of carbon dioxide per million BTUs) while natural gas releases about 117 pounds. This can result in many tons of carbon dioxide released to the air and other pollutants creating smog such as oxides of nitrogen, sulfur and organic chemicals.

The best way for consumers to help prevent or mitigate these emergencies is to reduce demand and support increases in clean energy supplies. We can turn our thermostat down by a few degrees, limit electric consumption, and add more layers of clothes.

The Big Oak

We visited my brother Bob and family in Thomasville, Georgia for Christmas. Just down the street from his house lives the famous Big Oak tree. Amazingly the tree is 337 years old! That puts the date of the acorn seedling to the year 1685.

According to the Thomasville visitors center, “A must for every visitor is a stop at Thomasville's oldest and most cherished natural landmark, The Big Oak. This massive Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) grew from a tiny acorn beginning around 1685 and is one of the original members (#49) of the Live Oak Society, enrolled in 1936. Now over 337 years old, the Big Oak has a limb span of over 165 feet and a trunk circumference of over 26 feet! President Eisenhower was so impressed with the Big Oak that he personally photographed it during one of his frequent visits to Thomasville. Interestingly, the fern that grows along its branches does not hurt the tree and is called the 'resurrection' fern because it appears dead until a rain causes it to turn immediately to a lush green.”

During the few days of our visit, we walked around the tree taking photographs from many angles and lighting conditions including heavy fog on Christmas morning. People are protecting and propping up the tree with poles and wire due to careless truck drivers who caused damage according to reports.

Protecting and preserving nature is needed now more than ever. Driving from Raleigh to Thomasville we observed many wooded areas being destroyed - torn down and burned - for more farm land, housing developments, and wider roads. Please support groups that are working to protect nature!